Review of Zootopia (2016) by Allan C — 25 Nov 2016

Surprisingly political of a children's movie has a bunny rabbit from the country travel to the big city with dreams of being the first bunny on the police force. But once she gets on the force she encounters condescension from her superiors, not really listened to, and is generally seen as a political stunt by the mayor.

Our bunny rabbit heroine, who's a not so subtle stand-in for women's rights, then enters a city that is not as terrific as she imagined. She finds stores refusing service to certain species, she finds a city that's segregated by animal types, and general open discrimination and negative views of certain animals (they even talk about certain animals being biologically predisposed to be savages).

But that all is the intelligent subtext of a film that on the surface level is funny, populated with charming characters, and a visual delight. Our bunny rabbit heroin, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, begins investigating a rash of animals turning savage.

She enlists the help of a con man fox, voiced by Jason Bateman, who has a bit of a chip on his shoulder by how most residents of Zootopia view foxes. There are also some very funny voice work by Idris Elba as a police captain, Bonnie Hunt as Goodwin's mother, Tommy Chong as a stoner water buffalo, J.

K. Simmons as the mayor, Alan Tudyk as a sketch weasel, and you even get Shakira, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, and Kristen Bell in bit parts. This is one of those films that works for both kids and adults and is a must see.